https://inews.co.uk/essentials/open-let ... igel-wood/ An interesting read.

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/open-let ... igel-wood/ An interesting read.

Pretty much just confirms a lot of suspicions on here that those with key positions in the rfl aren't doing a good enough job.
The world cup a few years ago was the [iperfect[/i springboard to give this sport a lift and they squandered it.

Some very good points made to an indolent administration which is not operating at the top of its game --- if you'll pardon the pun!

With TV sport dominated by major sports like Football, Cricket, Rugby Union, Athletics, Tennis, Golf etc and events like the Olympics, Football World Cup, European Club and International Football, Cricket Tours, Tennis and Golf competitions, Rugby Union Six Nations and European Club Competitions, it must be like banging your head against a brick wall to get publicity for Rugby League, especially now that since Union went fully professional and our game is now regarded as a minority sport as a result of no longer attracting the top players of the rival code and a situation that good players from League now go to Union.

The topic has been started by someone who it would appear works on a sports desk, so what is his Sports Editor doing to improve the lot of the game. Any information needed can be obtained from the websites, not only of the RFL, but all Clubs.

No matter how much the RFL do, they will now always be fighting a uphill battle when as a result of Sky, TV sport is now about world major sports events and not a game played mainly in the the North of England.

In the modern world, as print media dies a slow death, there are fewer journalists and staff photographers available to cover what could reasonably be described as a minority interest; it seems to me that this journalist is making a very well intentioned plea to the RFL to do what other sports have done in response to that - generate the copy themselves and provide a decent image to go with.

If anything, this confirms the widely held belief that the RFL is dysfunctional and unprofessional in many areas of its operation.

If you think about RL as a product, and you are the owner trying to get the world to buy into your product.

You could send out samples, get marketing products out to potential buyers, create online and email marketing to the big stores and smaller consumers continually send out information about your products and how good it is, take out advertisments on TV radio and newspapers, invite and bring in all your friends and people who like your product and get them onside to promote it for you via facebook and twitter etc empower a membership scheme for the whole game a bit like how Labour have done recently.

OR

You could you sit and wait for people to come to you and not allow people to come to your little poorly attended press conferences were you are pandering to same old faces day in day out week in week out who in the main work in paper media that is dying out.

The RFL shot themselves in the foot about 8 years when they negated the national newspapers by declared allegiance to the Daily Mirror as the "written voice" of rugby league. When they did that the amount of column inches shrunk dramatically with the Daily Mail and Daily Express etc. on match reports, yet anything negative about the game quickly attracted interest to show our sport in a bad light.

About as well summed up as is possible.

He's got a point about the late finishes. Any match on Sky seems to last an eternity as every blooming decision is sent to the VR. An 8pm start should have be over by 9.30pm, 9.40 at most. We've had a few when we didn't finish until 9.50pm.

There's a fella down here in London who works for The RFL called David Lawrenson. He emphasised the point to us (I setup a club down here along with another fella) that the best way to get publicity is to spoon-feed underpaid and overworked journalists with material on a regular basis.

Shame that one (talented) bloke out in the field has more of a clue than those at HQ (although this is entirely consistent with my own experience of the RFL over the past five or so years anyway...).

I fail to believe that for a six figure salary we couldn't get someone better than Nige.

I saw one of the RL Journos disputing this, saying that they do communicate with him and the like.
I don't think he understands this though. We don't need him to be drip fed items. He is going to write about them regardless, because he is a RL journo. We need the rest of the press to sit up and take note.

If you are trying to grow you club/brand/company, you have to attract new customers. Same with media coverage. If the same few guys are writing the articles, you are never going to increase the coverage.

I'm not having that, chippy Northerners are telling us that the RFL have being flooding that there London with marketing for over 30 years and doing a fantastic job of spreading the game but nobody is interested! Fooking idiots the lot of them.
To make matters worse they even paid themselves over the recommended salaries for a job well done (as stated in the 2015 annual report) as set by their self appointed auditors.

newspapers are dying out and being replaced by new forms of media. the rfl needs someone with forward thinking. even sport on tv isn't assured of its place in the future. things like facebook live and fan made broadcasts are where sports broadcasting is heading

The NFL has got it spot on IMO by streaming Thursday night games live on Twitter.

interestingly some clibs dont like even press conferences streaming live never mind anything else.